Question about assigning materials or textures

[Anonymous]

Hello. I recently downloaded a character in .dae format, and imported it into the 3D Max. But, it seems like there are several .tga textures coming along with this character with different names.

The thing is when I assign the material for the hair or any part of the character, I have to mark that element. It's quite hard, take a lot of time, and it won't make it accurately just like the character is supposed to look like.

So my question: Is there anyway I can apply all those textures at the same time with the character? I believe it's possible, but I need to know how. Thanks in advance!

[Steve_Curley]

The sections should already be "marked" with different Material IDs. Use a Multi-SubObject Material and place each of your materials into the slot which matches the ID on the Polys.

[Anonymous]

I've made a sub object material, but I don't know how to assign the .tga files to the numbers. Plus, I don't know if I should do assign them randomely? Or do they need an arrangement? Is there any video or explanation you can send me please?

Thanks for your response!

[Steve_Curley]

Select 1 poly in a particular area of the model, look at the Polygon: Material IDs rollout and it will tell you the ID. If, for example, you have 8 materials then every poly should have an ID from 1 to 8. You just put them into the MSO in the correct order, so Slot 1 is for ID1 and so on. Look up "Multi/SubObject" in the help.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, I was able to create it and went into the Polygon. Only the character's hair was modeled with ID 1 material, but I chose the face and tried to choose ID 3 for it, but I couldn't open the list in Polygon Material. It's just locked and I can only play with "Set Material" and a button called "Select Material". I tried to use them to set the face material to Slot 3 (Which is the face material) but nothing happens...

Thanks for replying and sorry if it's kinda hard to explain to me. I'm just kinda new to 3D Max.

[Steve_Curley]

If the model already has Material IDs then you don't need to set them - just look so you know which slot of the MSO you need to put the different materials into.

I'm not quite sure where your looking to see "Set Material" and "Select Material" - can you post a screenshot showing those please?

[Anonymous]

Here is an image:

My material editor look like this as soon as I open the characer into 3D Max:

It seems like the 3 first slots are changed automatically to super white as soon as I imported the character into 3D Max. But, I still don't know how to find out which slot is the right one to add the different materials into.

And how would I make the character assigned to those different materials after creating them into MSO?

Thanks for replying!

[Steve_Curley]

Those say "Set ID" and "Select ID", not "Set Material" and "Select Material" - hence the confusion.
When you select a Poly (or group of polys, if they have the same ID) then the Set ID field shows you what the current ID is, or allows you to change the ID for the currently selected Poly(s) by changing the value and clicking Set ID.
k Select ID allow you to select polys based on their existing ID. Change the value then click Select ID and all polys with that ID will be selected for you.

MSO is just shorthand for the Multi-SubObject Material (less typing 😉 ).

I've no idea about the materials - why they are bright - I don't have that model or its materials. See above for how to find which ID a poly has or which polys have a certain ID.

[Anonymous]

Oh.... Okay so that's what I've done so far in the MSO:

Though, the character's hair has changed as soon as I put material id 1. I also used "Show Standard Map In Viewport" in each material I added...

Though, only the hair color changed. I don't know how to assign the rest of the character to this MSO. Please, help me? 😛

Thanks!

EDIT: I only have 8 .tga files and there are .obj files with them. I'm sure that means that the character is only using 8 materials.

[Steve_Curley]

You're heading in the right direction - I think. Is that a free model or paid for? If it's free, post a link to it - it would be far easier to work out what, exactly, is needed if it's in front of us.

[Anonymous]

I understand. Here: http://tf3dm.com/3d-model/juliet-44936.html

If you ever figure out a way to texture it, please explain how you did it and I'd be really pleased.

Thank you. ^^

[Steve_Curley · Accepted solution]

Ok, that explains why you're having problems. It's not 1 model, but 3 - the hair, body and clothes are 3 separate entities.
Forget about the MSO - it's not relevent in this case - it would be if it were just 1 model.
As a starter just create 3 Standard materials, put one of the Hair images into 1, a Skin image into a second and a Cloth image into the 3rd. Apply each 1 to the appropriate section. Mesh0 is the hair, mesh2 is the cloth and mesh3 is the skin. Mesh1 seems to be the eyes and the top of the socks - and doesn't have any image file(s). You'll also have to do something with the Normal maps, but that's probably better as a separate question in the shading/lighting/rendering forum.

[Anonymous]

Alright. Thank you so much for the help!